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Microsoft to Sponsor WCG
xIcemanx writes "Microsoft has announced that it will be sponsoring the World Cyber Games through 2008, providing the world's largest e-sports competition with software, hardware, and marketing. let's hope this doesn't mean radical changes in the games we see at the championships."
it's the most competitive game there is!
Microsoft said they want to support PC gaming, so this is good news for companies like Blizzard who make PC games. While Microsoft's true intentions are only to further their own goal, they also just happen to help many others.
For a minute there, I thought Microsoft was going to sponsor the World Community Grid. Could you imagine if every new Windows PC shiped with a World Community Grid client? Imagine the power of the grid then...
So wait one second...who's the bad guy here...the multi-gazillion dollar corporation that paid a lot of money to put their name on a competition as a means of advertising their products, or the competition that initially put the naming rights up for sale in the first place?
...unless the spectators are in on the fun.
Video/PC games, like Chess isn't very fun when watching players sit in one place. Unless the sport is athletic, don't expect much of a public following.
Poker is an exception to the rule however as it imbues drama with other players in a round-table event.
Life is not for the lazy.
If you read the article (haha) you would have seen this:
The deal also asserts that Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 will be the exclusive gaming platforms for the PC and console for the events, meaning that other console titles for Sony or Nintendo platforms will not figure in the competitions.
Of course, you can't really expect them to provide anything else, as they are supplying all the hardware/software. Would you really expect them to buy Playstations?
If WCG didn't like the conditions, they didn't have to do the deal, that simple.
Who actually followed the WCG before this and is commenting? Because if you did, you know that the only thing people cared about was PC, and NOTHING ELSE. No one who attends these gives a damn about a PS2 or GC or Xbox competition, and thats the cold hard truth. Starcraft SELLS. FPS deathmatches SELL. This is not going to be any different and someone who thinks so is just staying hip with the times and ragging on MS. (I realise I've just murdered my karma)
How to know when your e-peen is getting too big:
You only want to play Starcraft for pink slips.
True competition is a test of skill in a fair and balanced situation, not a means of throwing money around to back up your testosterone. Unless you're playing poker. Betting, gambling, etc only makes things "interesting" because it's a metagame. You get to play two games instead of just the one. However, it's irrelevant to your skill as a player, and therefore not a judge of player quality. Frankly, if you're the type of person who gets excited just because you're betting, it would probably be wiser not to bet at all.
The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
What about... AppleJacked - Grab the new features as soon as they're announced by the competition and shoehorn your own half-assed version into the aging, bloated code of your flagship product before your opponents! SimFUD - Climb your way up the management ladder by making a better bullshit campaign about the evils of open source than your opponents! Browserbash - A looming, rival product has stolen precious marketshare, and you need to go into the darkest, deepest depths of the basement to get your web browser development team out of cryogenic storage in time to stop them!
And UT2004, and Quake 4, and Doom 3, and Saveage, and Enemy Territory, and any of a hundred other awesome commercial competitive games that run natively in linux.
As to upcoming games, UT2007, Savage 2, and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars are all going to run natively in linux.
Nice try Mr FUD.
Far as I can tell from the website, the only console games they've had in the past have been from Microsoft: Halo and PGR. If you're into the world cyber games, this will probably just improve their popularity. This is a good thing, ya'll are just blind Microsoft haters as usual.
"And UT2004, and Quake 4, and Doom 3, and Saveage, and Enemy Territory, and any of a hundred other awesome commercial competitive games that run natively in linux."
Ok braggard. List those one hundred games.* Oh and just in case no one noticed, the majority of those are FPSers.
*I seriously doubt you can even get to fifty.
...and compared to the *thousands* of games offered on windows or windows-and-console only?
The simple fact is, Windows is THE platform for PC gaming, and naming a handfull of games that run on linux doesn't change that fact.